Musk Sacks Twitter Executives, Takes Over Leadership

Elon Musk late Thursday completed his $44bn takeover of Twitter, taking control of the company and reportedly firing several top executives, including the chief executive, Parag Agrawal.

The world’s richest man tweeted “the bird is freed”, in a reference to Twitter’s corporate logo, just hours before a court-ordered deadline to buy the business expired.

The company’s chief financial officer, Ned Segal and the head of legal policy, trust and safety, Vijaya Gadde were among those Musk fired after the take over.

Twitter had earlier sued Musk in Delaware, where the company is incorporated, to demand that he close the deal.

Following a surprise change of mind by Musk as a court date approached, a Delaware judge then gave both sides until 5pm on 28 October to close the deal.

Throughout the back-and-forth, Musk regularly clashed with senior figures at Twitter, including Agrawal and Gadde.

Musk tweeted earlier in the day that he was buying Twitter “because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.”

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Twitter did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the departure of its top executives, but the platform’s co-founder Biz Stone thanked the trio — Agrawal, Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde — for their “collective contribution to Twitter.”

“Massive talents, all, and beautiful humans each.”

The closure of the deal marks the culmination of a long and drawn out back-and-forth between the billionaire and the social network.

Musk tried to step back from the Twitter deal soon after his unsolicited offer was accepted in April, and said in July he was canceling the contract because he was misled by Twitter over the number of fake “bot” accounts — allegations rejected by the company.

Twitter, in turn, sought to prove Musk was contriving excuses to walk away simply because he changed his mind.

After Musk sought to terminate the sale, Twitter filed a lawsuit to hold Musk to the agreement.

With a trial looming, the unpredictable billionaire capitulated and revived his takeover plan.